Whats Happening Today

Our Pride and Joy!

Dare to Dream you Dreams!

The concept of WhatsHappeningToday.com had began in 2010 after the dating scene, or should I say, the attempt to find a date online became a terrible experience. I tried Match, PlentyofFish, Cupid, Eharmoney and seen a pattern of “ways” that were not appealing to me. I will spare you the details but let it be sufficient to say that I just want to go start having fun doing “things” and having fun.

While in Sacramento California one fine evening back in 2010 I was doing my best to find something to do. I had just finished a dinner meeting and remember asking the Concierge where I could find live music, a pool hall, a pub. It was like pulling teeth to get an answer. So, in frustration, I stomped off to bed. I quickly drifted off to a dream state and started reliving the experience of “trying to find out what’s happening tonight in Sacrament…”

Then, all of a sudden the golden light, the choir at the end of the bed… me putting my hands on my hips and saying aloud (this is in my dream but really happened before I stomped off to bed) “All I wanted to do was find out what’s happening tonight! And then, at the very moment the heard the Choir belt out .COM!

In the Early Stages I had no idea of what I was doing

Oh, if were to share all the details of the crashes, burns, road-rash that I have been through in learning how do develop web sites…you would think I was “touched.” I do at times! lol

I did not know one thing about web design, web design types such as a static site vs a dynamic site. I know nothing about graphic design, web design software, hosting, html.. NOTHING! But I kept the thought that someday I will be able to travel the World and use a computer to find out what was happening at different places. Thus the journey began.

I decided to go big! I hired two gentlemen in Jackson California who led me to believe “they” could make me realize my dreams. As it turned out, they were frauds. The one person I felt was just a user. And he was. He took the money and ran. Soon he was out of business and I was left with Software and servers that could run a hosting company like Godaddy or BlueHost but I had not the foggiest on how to use it. I was left stranded. No web site, no knowledge on how to come up to speed and so the journey began. A brutal one at that.

My Angies-kinda-type-sort-of-contractor-exchange

How was I to pay for such an endeavor now? That was the big question. Since 1996 my income was, and still is derived from insurance sales. I own and operate an Independent Insurance Agency in Pine Grove California. I will not bore you with the technical aspects and my knowledge of insurance. I have 25 plus years of experience in more type of insurance underwriting that you could phantom. Here is “one” of insurance web site. AthenaInsurance.com

If not for the excellent service we provide and the wonderful clients that we have, I would not have been able to pursue my dreams of developing the WhatsHappeningToday.com and WhatsHappeningTonight.com sites. (yes still single and working day and night helps fill the void…but now I get to go out and see what’s happening too! JOY!)

So, I hired a developer out of India. As it turns out, the coders were “coming and going” and “each new coder” were taking a slightly different approach to how they coded. (Now please understand that I do not know php, html, java or other coding skills. Well, now I do..but just alittle… ) So, I relied on the point man “Manish” who promised it would all work.

Well, getting up at 1:00am in the morning to meet with their coders and getting three hours of sleep got old over the year and a half. Yes… I trust in them with every dollar and hour… As I look back now, the coders developed what many call “spaghetti” code. And I was helpless to do anything about it. I paid the first time and I paid the second time to start over… I went bankrupt after the economy turned here in the U.S. and could not and would not pay for a third time around even if I could afford it. I had been “had” again. This I really have only one word of advice in hiring a freelance developer overseas. Use some third party service to mediate and do not pay them in advance. I say this from experience.

Moving forward…

Years later, still broken and still trying to put my life back together, a former Mr. Mom, sole proprietor and single lonely guy, I consulted with another U.S. developer about my Contractor Web site. The site is AmericanContractorExchange.com. Now, it became apparent that I did not have the finances to make this happen. But he did point out a “God send” of a community that reside with an organization called. “WordPress.org” I could not say enough good things about this open forum of people from around the World.

I will not go into detail here but suffice to say.. I look at it as giving people a set of lego building blocks and letting the creative mind go. Some people would chose to just not want to play with them. Them meaning the plugins. Some people would not want to “pay” for them. Meaning they will not spend the money to purchase the pro developer and many free plugins. And some people would not want to spend the time and effort to learn how to assemble them. And then we have the other people….

The people that can dream and visualize the potential of the “I wonder if I could do this? ”

If not for this wonderful group of people and their creative minds and intellect my dreams would not be coming to light. And for any and all of them that participate in the community of WordPress, the developers, the contributors, those participating in the open forums… I thank you, I thank you and I thank you.